


The Art of Waiting (and what happens when the wait is over)

by LighteningDancer



Category: Tales of Zestiria
Genre: I'm not sorry, M/M, Seraph!Sorey, after Sorey's sleep, but it's cute i promise, enjoy the ride, this is sormik trash, welcome to my headcanon hell
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-27
Updated: 2016-09-27
Packaged: 2018-08-18 05:53:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8151307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LighteningDancer/pseuds/LighteningDancer
Summary: Sorey was asleep and Mikleo simply had to wait. 
The waiting was the easy part, after all it was a simple action that did not in its nature usually cause pain. People and seraphim alike waited all the time for the simplest of things, such as viewing a sunset or eating a particular food. It was the regrets that came with the act of waiting that had the ability to splinter one’s heart. 
NOT FALLEN MIKLEO I SWEAR





	

**Author's Note:**

> You can blame Warlordess for this.  
> Yeah I am blaming this on you and you know why.  
> Seriously though she is the one with the awesome headcanon so totes go follow her: https://warlordess.tumblr.com/

Sorey was asleep and Mikleo simply had to wait. 

The waiting was the easy part, after all it was a simple action that did not in its nature usually cause pain. People and seraphim alike waited all the time for the simplest of things, such as viewing a sunset or eating a particular food. It was the regrets that came with the act of waiting that had the ability to splinter one’s heart. Specifically, when the regrets were made of the simplest things in life.

Not being able to see a sunset with someone.

Not being able to share a meal with someone.

Not being able to see them at all.

Those were some of the possible repercussions of waiting, of time slipping through cracks. But what was worse than all of this was that Sorey felt none of that, not like Mikleo knew he should have. Because the other boy, no he was a man at the time of his sleep and sometimes it was hard to remember that, never knew what he was missing out on. The regrets slipped off his shoulders like they never existed, and to Sorey during his slumber they never did. What was that saying again, you can’t miss what you’ve never had? It was like that only a thousand times worse because it’s not missing these things, it’s the regret that comes with never even being given the chance to miss them. 

Mikleo knows that Sorey should have these regrets and although that isn’t enough it’s something. As long as Mikleo knows that the other should have been there it was a start, a beginning in a time that felt like there were only endings. Of all the things that Mikleo thought would weigh on him during Sorey’s sleep he never would have imagined it would have been the possibilities that were lost. There were so many missed opportunities the sleeping Shepard lost out on that it was bordering on the ridiculous in only the first two months. 

And thus after months of inner turmoil Mikleo makes a decision; he was going to start living for two. 

Mikleo lives and enjoys life as often as he was able not just for himself but for the sleeping man who could not do it himself. The water seraph sits and enjoys both sunsets and sunrises with his and Soreys traveling companions. He makes them frozen treats and eats their food in return, even if some of it looks questionable at best. And some nights when they are unable to make it to an Inn they all sit under the stars and talk as if nothing had shifted, like someone wasn’t missing, and Mikleo sometimes thinks that this all might be enough.

If Mikleo remembers enough, if he does enough with the others, then when Sorey comes back and has questions about them he would be able to answer them. It could almost maybe be like he had been there in a sense. It would never replace the real thing, the chance Sorey should have had to experience yet was ripped away from him, but it would be something. And the ache in Sorey’s heart may just be a little lighter thanks to Mikleo’s efforts and that gave the water seraph strength in those early years.

But then Rose dies of old age and Mikleo has never felt more stupid. A human life is impossible to contain in simple second hand memories. Mikleo would never ever be able to even dim Soreys regret once he was awake. The blue eyed seraph was no less naïve at eighty seven then when he believed Sorey’s mud pie would taste like a real pie. 

A few short fleeting years later Alisha followed Rose and Sorey is still sleeping on never knowing that he would never see his first human friends alive again. This strikes a chord in Mikleo because the two human females were his friends too and he couldn’t even mourn them with his best friend by his side. And if he was hurting this much now how would Sorey feel, knowing that he would be mourning late for people that were so dear to him? 

Soon enough 100 years had passed since Sorey began his slumber and Mikleo knows that if Sorey had never gone to sleep that he would have passed on. This leaves the seraph with a sea of emotions he just simply doesn’t know how to deal with. So he cries for a long time at the realization of his feelings, the joy that he would still be able to see Sorey’s smile one day and the sadness in knowing that any chance Sorey ever had at a normal human life really and truly was ripped away from him.

Mikleo slowly begins to fill his time with a variety of things at this point in time never really settling on doing only one thing. After all, while he couldn’t forge bonds of friendship for Sorey with people he had never met he was able to catalog places and events with relative accuracy. Sometimes Mikleo travels with the Shepard, or eventually one of the multiple Shepard’s, of the time. It’s never like it was when Sorey was by his side but it keeps him going and smiling more often than not. Sorey would not want Mikleo to live his life with regrets no matter how many of them the once Shepard would have to face.

Plus, all of his traveling allows the water seraph to stop by and check in on Sorey at least once every year or two. There are times that the visits last only a few days as it was a regular pilgrimage stop for new the new Shepard’s he joins. Other times Mikleo is able to stay in the area for a month or two, just being content in being close to Sorey. Once he stays for a whole year on the 400th anniversary, and while the year feels short it makes the longing for Sorey worse than ever and Mikleo promises to never stay that long again.

After all, too much sadness and longing would cause him to be tainted and Sorey did not deserve to wake up to Mikleo as a Dragon of all things.

And Sorey does wake one spring morning six hundred and eighty-seven years after he began his sleep. At first his mind is blank; empty of anything other than what his senses could take in. He notices that he’s warm and his arms and legs feel as if he had been sleeping on them for too long creating he had pins and needles. He attempts to shake blood back into his limbs as he slowly takes in his surroundings, staring at them as if it were the first time he had ever seen them. And for a minute Sorey honestly thinks that maybe it was his first time seeing them. How did he even get to this place, wherever it was, anyway?

But then seemingly out of the blue loneliness slides into his heart like a knife around the edges of a breast plate. The once Shepard places a gloved hand over his heart, (and wow didn’t that glove look cool?) and tries to rub the negative feeling away. Why did he feel like this? What in the world would cause him to feel so empty and alone without it’s presence? Of course that seems to be the right question to mentally ask the universe because no sooner had the thought occurred to him memories came flooding back.

It doesn’t take long before he remembers everything. Well maybe not everything because no one can actually remember everything, but he remembers enough. He knows all of the important moments and all of the people he had once been so very close to. Rose and Lailah and Zaveid and Gramps and Edna and Dezel and Alisha and Mikleo.

Oh God he needs to find Mikleo.

And that thought was what had brought Sorey to a very particular set of ruins only two days after he had awoken. Something has been drawing him there and though he doesn’t know why he knows that this was where he needed to be. Never being one to ignore his instincts he enters the ruins with more questions than answers until he see’s a flash of blue and white. 

No way. It couldn’t be. Could it?

Logical thought goes straight out the window as Sorey struggles to catch up, which was hard when it seemed like the ruin was more of a labyrinth than anything else. But finally, finally, he reachs the other in an ornate room. Mikleo’s back is turned but Sorey knows that it had to be him, no one else would ever be able to make his heart stutter in his chest like Mikleo and it currently felt like a hummingbird was in his ribcage. So Mikleo it was. But before he can break the giant smile off his face and call out to the other the floor literally fall’s through on his plans. And there goes Mikleo falling to what may or may not be his doom. 

Hundreds of years may have passed since the last time something like this had happened but Sorey’s body moves on pure muscle memory. Before he even had time to think he was bracing himself and reaching into the new chasm to grab onto the others outstretched hand. Time seems to slow to a stop when Mikleo reaches his other hand toward Soreys and latches on. Pulling him up and into Sorey’s arms was only natural at that point.

And if that stops a lot of the aching in two hearts at once, surely it was merely coincidence.

* * *

“We really need to find you some new clothes,” Mikleo observes as the two begin leaving the ruins. 

After what may have been minutes, hours, or days the two had finally untangled themselves. And really who could blame them for not knowing how long they had been in that pile of limbs on the floor for? One of them had lived for centuries and the other had slept for just as long so time did seem a little skewed. What wasn’t skewed however was the joy each of them felt at having the other back. 

After the impromptu session, of what could be considered only cuddling, on the floor the two had talked for a while. Not about much, mainly just “I missed you’s” and “How did you get here’s?” But in the end it was Sorey who prompted them to move with the bobbing of his knees’, a clear sign to Mikleo he was getting restless. 

“What’s wrong with these?” Sorey wonders using the hand not attached to the arm draped over the water seraphs shoulder to gesture at his outfit. Which happened to be the same one he had been wearing when he woke up as he never really thought to stop and change. The look Mikleo shot in reply clearly read ‘are you stupid?’.

“For all that you have changed Sorey” and at that Mikleo’s heart gave a bit of a pang “your clothes haven’t. I mean they are mostly intact, no thanks to Maotelus in some way or another, but still you have to admit that they don’t fit anymore.”

“But I like them.” The new seraph states as he begins to pout a bit. Okay maybe it was more of a whine but really, they had better things to be talking about then his choice in attire. If they had to talk about clothes then Sorey wanted to know how Mikleo ended up looking even more fancy then before. Who cared what Sorey wore. 

Not knowing how else to get his point across Mikleo simply stops walking and gently draws away from Sorey. He immediately wants to be back in the others warm grasp, but fights that urge by simply replying “I know you do.” 

Mikleo takes a moment to look over Sorey and it’s obvious his observation to get the other something else to wear was accurate. Sorey’s body has changed in more ways than just his hair growing longer and gaining blonde tips. He has grown a lot in the time he had been asleep, and the clothes that used to fit him perfectly were now far too small. It wasn’t just that they were too tight, though in some places there was a lot more visible definition then there had been previously, it was that well… 

“Sorey, look at this,” Mikleo admonishes as he grabs the others wrist. “Your sleeve doesn’t even touch my hand it’s so far up your arm. Not to mention it doesn’t even have the button that kept it together anymore. And your pants are worse!” Removing his hand Mikleo instead places it on his head and sighs. “Honestly you look like a kid with a really really bad growth spurt.”

Okay now Sorey really was pouting. “At least I’m still taller than you.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Mikleo shoots back as naturally as breathing.

“That even now you’re still short.” A hint of a smile is pulling at the others lips as he speaks.

“I am average height Sorey! Average. Height.”

“Then why can I do this?” Sorey teases as he rests his arm on Mikleo’s head easily. 

“So I can do this!” Mikleo retorts quickly jabbing out under Soreys arm to reach his most ticklish spots. He tries to squirm away but Mikleo was not about to let him retreat so easily after the attack on his height. Not now not ever.

“Mikleo-“ Sorey gasps out trying to put some distance between them “-stop. Please!”

The water seraph however is not satisfied with this weak attempt at getting him to relinquish his assault on Sorey’s weak points. Instead he presses himself closer to the other making it harder for him to escape. “Not until you take it back!”

“I’m being serious! This is your last warning!” Sorey protests, but with all of the laughter surrounding the words they don’t feel serious.

“So am I. Apologize!”

“Never!” Suddenly one of Mikleo’s hands is trapped by Soreys own. Then the other. Looking into Sorey’s eyes Mikleo knows what is coming next. He would have known that look if the other was a hundred paces away and behind heavy fog. It was Sorey’s game face- and it was on.

“Wait! Sorey no!”

But the words fall on deaf ears as Sorey begins to tickle the water seraph rather enjoying the way the smaller man gives into hysterics. Sorey was only giving back, sharing the experience really, which Gramps had been all about when they were younger. Because as they say ‘fair is fair.’

Somehow, Mikleo swears by skill and Sorey is convinced by pure dumb luck or cheating, Mikleo manages to get away. This leads to the longest most amusing game of tag the two had ever played. Each time one manages to grab the other the tickle war resumed only long enough for someone to break free and then the chase was on once again. Laughter bounces on the walls and down the corridors’ causing the warm feeling in both of their chests to swell.

Yeah, they’d both missed this.

But all good things must meet an end, and the moment passes as the two reach a terrace. Sorey, the one who was being chased at that moment, has to skid to a stop to make sure he doesn’t go flying off the edge. Whoever had built this ruin had either been really unsafe or very bad at making railings that lasted for centuries as there was nothing to stop him from careening over the edge. Luckily he manages to stop himself in time, and Mikleo was able to read the others body language enough to slow down enough to only lightly impact with Sorey’s back. 

“Wow.” Sorey says breathless as Mikleo moved away from the other’s back.

Mikleo laughS, more light and less hysterical than he had been moments before. “I know. I haven’t run that much in a long time.” 

Not even looking behind him Sorey shakes his head lightly and keeps staring in the distance. “No Mikleo. Look!” 

“At what?” Mikleo wonders clearly missing something. Standing on his toes he is just able to see over Sorey’s shoulders.

“Oh.” All other words died on Mikleo’s tongue. When was the last time Sorey had seen something like this? The horizon seemed to stretch on forever from their position high above the trees on the Cliffside. And the real thing that stole his breath was the sight of the sun setting creating a canvas of color across the sky.

Slowly the two move forward to the edge of the terrace before gently sitting and letting their feet dangle off the edge. Perhaps it should have felt precarious but it just seems far too peaceful. And there they stay, almost touching but not quite, as the stars went from simply speckling their vision to fully covering the sky in a beautiful tapestry. 

“You’re still going to need a new outfit.” Mikleo eventually murmurs breaking the silence. Looking over to see Sorey’s shoulder shaking in quiet laughter makes an even bigger smile break out on Mikleo’s face.

Bumping his shoulder into Mikleo’s Sorey just shakes his head. “Alright, alright you win this time!” Meeting the water seraphs eyes he continues, “You just don’t know when to give up do you?”

“When it comes to you? Never.”

* * *

Seraphim don’t need to live in houses. Over the years though, as Seraphim assimilated more and more with humans due to their rising ability to be seen by said human’s, things changed. Like them owning homes. After all they couldn’t exactly invite their new human friends over for tea if the only place they could serve that tea was on uncomfortable rocks by the river. Mikleo had a bit of a head start on the whole living indoors thing thanks to growing up with Sorey. After all the whole “village” part of Elysia had only been built to make Sorey feel as though he was growing up normally.

Thus it should come as no surprise that Mikleo owns a house, and yet Sorey is staring at it like it the most wonderful and confusing thing that he has ever seen.

“You live here?” He asks looking between Mikleo and the small cottage in quick succession.

“Sometimes.” Mikleo replies as he moves forward passed the still shocked man to open the door. “At least whenever I have the time or remember to.”

Sorey is right behind him as Mikleo moves into the house. There are more cobwebs then he thought there would be, but then again he could not remember if it had been five or ten years since he had last set foot there. A loud sneeze breaks him out of his pondering, and there Sorey is with webs hanging from his clothes and a very red nose.

Mikleo can’t help it as he laughs at the others expense.

It takes them all day to get the place anywhere close too livable but it was certainly an adventure. One that includes still living spiders, ruining some curtains, and locating old texts that Mikleo had been certain were in one of his other residences.

Maybe one day Sorey would see all of the places Mikleo owned like the one they rested in that night. But even if not it wouldn’t matter because Sorey’s presence had upgraded this place from house to home.

* * *

The look on Sorey’s face is a nervous one.

“This is really weird.”

“Tell me about it.” Mikleo responds staring at the same statue as Sorey. It wasn’t the first one that had been made of its kind and it wasn’t the last. In fact, in Mikleo’s travels he had come across at least 23 statues that are similar variations of the one before them.

The statue in question is of Sorey in his full Shepard regalia, the celestial record in one hand and a sword held skyward in the other. The outfit is accurate but it was clear that the artist had never actually met Sorey… ever. In other words, the face was obviously wrong and the only way that it was confirmed that it was indeed Sorey was the plaque that read: “In honor of Shepard Sorey; Bringer of the time of Great Prosperity.”

“It looks nothing like me.” Sorey comments, not moving any closer to the piece.

Looking at Sorey out of the corner of his eye Mikleo waits to see Sorey’s reaction to what he says next. “Would it help if I said some of them look even less like you? All things considered this one isn’t too horrible.”

“There are more?” Sorey gasps, his eyes getting even wider.

“That look like this one? About 23 that I know of,” Mikleo explains in a tone that shows he is just bordering on laughter. At the redness slowly creeping its way up Sorey’s cheeks Mikleo also feels compelled to add- “Wait, are you blushing?”

“Wha-?! No! No I’m not!” Sorey protested turning towards Mikleo with his hands up.

Mikleo however was not about to let it go. Instead he begins trying to poke the others cheeks. “Yes you are! Look how red your cheeks are!”

“Mikleo! Stop I’m going to back into someone!” Sorey pleads as he tries to both stay away from Mikleos pokes and not run into anyone on the street.

“Hey at least it’s not the statue with your shirt off and hair blowing in the breeze.” Mikleo sighs as he gave up his attack.

“Does that exist?” asks Sorey, a look of terror slowly dawning on his face.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Mikleo comments as he begins to walk towards the shop he needs to visit and the reason they were there in the first place.

“That’s not funny! Tell me!” Sorey calls as he follows the other.

Mikleo never ended up confirming or denying said statue’s existence, he didn’t need to when the pair encountered it a few weeks later.

* * *

Eventually the other shoe has to drop. 

It’s a late night about three months after Sorey woke up and all seems calm. The past few days had been uneventful, just the two of them exploring some ruins nearby and then squatting at night in one of the small houses Mikleo owns. At that moment they both been reading, Mikleo one of his older favorites and Sorey a book that while old was brand new to him.

“Hey Mikleo?” Sorey asks.

“Yeah?” Questions back Mikleo, his eyes never leaving his book.

With hope and trepidation in his voice Sorey proceeds. “Do you think we could go to Rose and Alisha’s graves next?” It’s the first time he said their names since he woke up and the effect is immediate. 

Mikleo is a water seraph, he knows ice. The way it feels whether it’s freshly formed and thin or ancient and dense. He can create or destroy it with a flick of his fingers, and each time he does so it makes him feel warm. Like he has done something immeasurably right. But with ice settling around his heart and his brain feeling numb he feels anything but warm. In fact, he feels like he has done something immeasurably wrong.

Some of that must show on his face because suddenly Sorey is in front of him gently taking the book he was holding away and refilling the space with his warm hands. “Are you okay?” And damn it all if Sorey doesn’t look so genuine in his worry for Mikleo.

Biting his lip Mikleo tries to wrestle his hands away and back out of Sorey’s grip but the other was having none of it. “Sorey let go.” Mikleo mutters out trying not to let his voice crack and failing.

“No. Tell me what’s wrong.” Sorey says tightening his hold. 

“I can’t!” Mikleo cries out, still struggling while the ice in his chest grows ever colder.

Sorey however is really not letting it go this time. There have been times in the past few weeks that the other seraphim would just space out and Sorey feels as though that and his friends current melt down are related. They are going to fix this, tonight. “Yes, you can.”

“Fine! Do you really want to know?” Mikleo yells.

“Yes!”

Mikleo can’t stop himself from wrenching himself free and leaping to his feet. The sudden movement shocks Sorey but Mikleo is too far gone to really care all that much. He is pacing before he even knows his feet are moving, hands gesturing wildly and without focus. “Sometimes I look at you and I get so mad and frustrated and overwhelmed that it makes me want to cry. Do you know what it’s like never knowing when you’ll see your best friend again? To know that they’re asleep but not having a clue when that sleep will end? To wait day after day for something that may not come for hundreds of years? Not only that but not knowing if when they wake up if they will even remember you! You went to sleep a human Sorey, what if you lost your memories of your time as a human? Sure Maotelus obviously took care of that but how was I supposed to know?! So I was left wonder would you wake up not knowing what you lost and who you used to be! And-“

“-Mikleo-“ Sorey tries to interject but is completely blocked out.

“No! I’m not done! Not even close! What if you had come back a human Sorey? What then? You already had your human life taken from you. No, it wasn’t even taken you gave it away willingly! You threw everything away for a chance at peace for everyone! What if a human life was all you got in return? Would it have even been worth it then, missing out on everything that happened only to end up dying so quickly? How would that be fair after everything that you had done for the universe to throw you away like that?

”But no matter what you came back as one thing stayed the same; Rose and Alisha died Sorey and you weren’t there to grieve with the rest of us! You never even knew it happened! And when people finally started to see Seraphim on a large scale you weren’t here to celebrate with us either! For almost seven hundred years you didn’t laugh or cry or smile or joke or get angry or do anything but sleep! How can you be okay with this?!” Tears are falling freely now but Mikleo has lost any care for that minutes ago.

“Because of you!” Sorey is standing now too, and with the flames behind him flickering he almost looks as though he has a glow. But his face is scrunched as if in pain and his hands make fists at his sides.

“Sorey-“ Mikleo stands frozen now only able to watch Sorey move closer to his immobile form. 

“I’m not saying I don’t miss them because I do. I miss Rose’s teasing and Alisha’s easy smiles. I miss sitting around with everyone and just laughing for a moment forgetting the world was on our shoulders. I miss not being able to be there when they passed and not being able to shoulder the burden of that with you and the other! But I made my choice to purify this world and I can’t look back now and regret it.”

“But you should! You lost everything and I couldn’t do anything to help you!” Sorey is moving forward despite Mikleo’s words and every inch that closes between them seems to awaken something in Mikleo’s chest. Something warm and light and nothing like the ice around his heart. 

Sorey’s hands are on his cheeks wiping away any tears still stubbornly falling. His eyes stare right into Mikleo’s as he continues. “Yes you did! You stayed and you waited and I didn’t lose you Mikleo!”

Mikleo is aware of nothing more than Sorey the moment he closes the distance between them and seals their lips together. It’s not perfect he knows that, his mouth feels dry from yelling and his cheeks are wet despite Sorey’s efforts. But Mikleo still feels as though he is hit by lightning with the way light explodes inside him. The ice begins to melt leaving Mikleo feeling warm and making him bold enough to curl his arms around Sorey’s neck.

For a moment all is still and Mikleo wonders if maybe Sorey’s stillness means something’s wrong, that maybe he should back away now and apologize for not asking first, but then Sorey is moving his hands to his hips and pulling him closer and those thoughts are lost to the wind. It’s simple, just the pressure of two sets of lips upon the other but it’s so much more than that.

It’s being able to see a sunset with Sorey whenever he wants to.

It’s being able to eat by Sorey’s side and try the others horrible attempts at cooking. 

It’s hope and joy and laughter and a promise for tomorrow that fills Mikleo with joy and not regret.

To Mikleo it’s everything that Sorey ever was and ever will be.

When they break apart both are gasping for breath and smiling like they have been given the world at their fingertips. And maybe they have.

“I love you Mikleo.” Sorey says as he leans down and plants another chaste kiss on Mikleo’s lips. “And you did everything just by waiting.”

He made sound so easy, the waiting, that Mikleo can’t seem to feel bad about it in that moment. Leaning so his forehead rests on Sorey’s shoulder Mikleo speaks in a low tone. “Just don’t do it again and I’ll forgive you.”

“I promise I won’t.” Soreys voice is filled with so much conviction that Mikleo would never imagine doubting him.

“And Sorey, I love you too.” Mikleo says as he pulls the other closer still, wishing that the moment would become an infinity. They stand like that, intertwined until the fire is little more than embers in the hearth before Mikleo speaks. 

“Tomorrow let’s head to Ladylake. We can stop by Roses grave on the way and Alisha is buried right outside the city. If we’re lucky maybe Lailah will be there waiting for the festival to start and another Shepard to pull her sword free.” Which gains him a light kiss on the top of his head. 

It’s not perfect, not yet. Mikleo still feels regret for the things Sorey has lost but it has been dulled and muted by Sorey’s presence. Being in the other’s arms was enough for now, after all they had centuries of being with each other to look forward to, and from where Mikleo was standing the future looked pretty bright.


End file.
